APPENDIX
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE AGRICULTURE
SELECT COMMITTEE'S TENTH REPORT ON THE REGIONAL SERVICE CENTRES
1. The Government welcomes the Committee's report
on the planned restructuring of MAFF's Regional Service Centres
(RSCs).
2. The Committee seeks clarification on how the various
initiatives covered by the restructuring programme fit together.
The programme consists of three elements:
- The establishment of a new CAP Payments Agency
(CAPPA) which will take over from MAFF and the Intervention Board
the processing and payment of claims from farmers and traders
under all CAP schemes;
- The appointment of a MAFF Director, with appropriate
support, in each Government Office for the Regions;
- The creation of a new nationally managed but
regionally based service in MAFF (working title the Rural Development
Service) whose primary role will be delivery of the England Rural
Development Plan.
3. All three elements of the programme are designed
to enable MAFF to enhance its ability to deliver high quality,
responsive public services and to improve the quality of its contribution
to the policy making process at regional level. The proposed restructuring
of the Regional Service Centres, the Intervention Board (IB) and
the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency (FRCA) will allow MAFF
to create new organisations each clearly focussed on its core
business and set up in a way which maximises efficiency and facilitates
partnership working.
4. CAPPA will take advantage of the benefits
offered by modern technology to offer a streamlined, quicker and
more efficient service to farmers and traders. It will seek to
minimise the bureaucracy associated with CAP administration, and
will work closely with farming industry organisations and other
local partners such as livestock markets and rural post offices
to ensure that all farmers have access to local advice and assistance
with electronic claim submission. Detailed planning for the network
of local advice and assistance on claim submission will be taken
forward when the consultation period on the proposals ends on
29 September. The Government is keen for the farming industry
to reap the benefits offered by new technology and hopes that
farmers will quickly see that e-forms will reduce the burdens
associated with submitting CAP claims and result in payments being
made more quickly. However there are no plans to withdraw the
facility for submitting claims on paper in the foreseeable future.
5. The precise role and responsibilities of the
MAFF Director in the Government Offices are being worked out in
consultation with the Regional Co-ordination Unit based in DETR
and with the GO Regional Directors. The high-level objective is
to ensure that MAFF's participation in the GO framework contributes
effectively to the attainment in the regions of the Department's
objectives as set out in the PSA, and to the more effective delivery
of Government policy generally.
6. The new Rural Development Service will bring
together the technical expertise currently in FRCA and the administrative
experience of the RSCs so as to ensure effective delivery of the
England Rural Development Plan and other MAFF services in the
regions. It will provide a high-quality local service to farmers,
working with them to draw up agreements under the agri-environment
schemes and other schemes covered by the England Rural Development
Plan. It will operate on the basis of Government Office regional
boundaries and will provide technical advice and assistance to
the GOs as well as to MAFF Headquarters. It will work closely
with regional partners including Regional Development Agencies
and the Small Business Service.
7. MAFF recognises that the restructuring programme
is ambitious, complex and risky and that programme management
skills of a high order are needed to deliver it successfully.
An experienced programme director for the CAPPA programme was
appointed at the end of March and will lead the project until
the Chief Executive takes up post. The Chief Executive post was
advertised externally at the beginning of September. Programme
management expertise has also been brought in to assist with the
MAFF in the Regions programme (which covers both the establishment
of a MAFF presence in the GOs and the creation of the Rural Development
Service). Comprehensive risk registers have been drawn up covering
the restructuring programme as a whole, and risks will be actively
managed throughout the transition to the new structures.
8. An external consultant is leading the team
which is currently drawing up the specification for the new IT
systems for CAPPA. The programme team is drawing on the recent
Cabinet Office review of major Government IT projects, Successful
IT, in planning for the procurement of the new systems. As
the Committee recommends, the new systems will be thoroughly trialed
and tested before the existing systems are decommissioned.
9. The restructuring programme is a key element
of MAFF's response to the Modernising Government initiative.
MAFF Ministers and the Department's top management are fully committed
to seeing it through to a successful conclusion.
Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food
September 2000
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